No flu signs in wild-bird tests
1/11/2005 7:41
China's State Forestry Administration said yesterday it has received no
reports of avian flu among migratory birds since June, and a similar all-clear
signal came from a popular nature preserve in Hong Kong.
The mainland report
was based on observations from 118 wild-animal monitoring stations across the
country, said Zhuo Rongsheng, director of the administration's Department of
Wildlife and Forest Plants Protection.
The stations are considered to be the
mainstay of China's bird flu monitoring system.
"All forestry authorities
have banned people, livestock and poultry from entering the areas where
migratory birds gather, in a bid to avoid the possible spread of avian flu,"
Zhou said.
Since autumn, the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus has been
reported in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hunan Province in
the nation's center, and Anhui Province in the east. No human infections have
occurred in China, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Governments in
the flu-hit areas have slaughtered all poultry and imposed quarantines within a
5-kilometer radius of trouble spots, the ministry said.
Also yesterday, the
World Wide Fund Hong Kong said that no wild birds have tested positive for H5N1
virus at the Mai Po Nature Reserve.
Fund officials said that 16,000 samples
have been taken from wild birds at the reserve since 2003, and none have shown
traces of the virus.
Since the first outbreak of avian flu in 1997, samples
have been extracted annually from wild birds at Mai Po by the Microbiology
Department of The University of Hong Kong.
The WWF is taking additional
measures as well to further minimize the risk to the staff, visitors and others
of being exposed to H5N1 from wild birds at Mai Po, including placing
disinfectant hand washes at selected points around the reserve and stepping up
the monitoring of wild birds.
Xinhua
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